Dr. Murray also has over twenty years of professional urban planning experience, including 12 years as a former Director of Planning and Development in Massachusetts. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Murray has authored and presented numerous papers on economic development, affordable housing and urban planning, including articles published in Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ), the Economic Development Journal, the Journal of Public Affairs Education and the Council for Urban Economic Development’s Commentary.

Dr. Maria Ilcheva

Dr. Maria Ilcheva has been employed as a senior researcher at the Metropolitan Center since 2009. She has experience and responsibility in a number of areas critical to the Metropolitan Center’s operations, including serving as Principal Investigator and/or Project Manager on a number of contracts and grants, with many of them including a public involvement element. Dr. Ilcheva has over eight years of experience in working on various economic development, social and behavioral projects. Ms. Ilcheva serves as Subject Matter Expert in behavioral research, including surveys, polling, evaluations, and focus groups and supervises and maintains quality standards for SPSS statistical analysis for Center projects.

Kerland “Jeanette” Jacques

Kerland “Jeanette” Jacques is the Training Coordinator at the Metropolitan Center. Her areas of specialization include training and curriculum planning, events management, budget development, committee coordination, formal and informal communications, desktop publishing, data management, and service/product promotion. She received her B.A. in Education with a minor in Business Administration. Ms. Jacques has been part of the Center's staff for 9 years and she oversees all of the Training Departments Administrative issues.